Chernobyl Quotes

Despite the stupidity, the lies, even this, you are compelled. The problem has been assigned, and you will stop at nothing until you find an answer. Because that is who you are.[to Ulana Khomyuk]

At the levels some of them were exposed? Ionizing radiation tears the cellular structure apart. The skin blisters, turns red, then black. This is followed by a latency period. The immediate effects subside. The patient appears to be recovering. Healthy, even. But they aren’t. This usually only lasts for a day or two. Then the cellular damage begins to manifest. The bone marrow dies, the immune system fails, the organs and soft tissue begin to decompose. The arteries and veins spill open like sieves, to the point where you can’t even administer morphine for the pain, which is unimaginable. And then three days to three weeks, you are dead.[Boris Shcherbina: What does the radiation do to them precisely?]

All victories inevitably come at a cost.

“Why worry about something that isn’t going to happen?” Oh, that’s perfect. They should put that on our money.

We couldn’t put a man on the moon. At least we can keep a man off a roof.

The numbers mean the same thing. “Maybe.” Maybe the core will melt through to the groundwater. Maybe the miners I’ve told to dig under the reactor will save millions of lives. Maybe I’m killing them for nothing. I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to stop. But I can’t.

Our power comes from the perception of our power.

An RBMK reactor uses uranium 235 as fuel. Every atom of U-235 is like a bullet traveling at nearly the speed of light, penetrating everything in its path: woods, metal, concrete, flesh. Every gram of U-235 holds over a billion trillion of these bullets. That’s in one gram. Now, Chernobyl holds over three million grams, and right now, it is on fire. Winds will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent, rain will bring them down on us. That’s three million, billion, trillion bullets in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. Most of these bullets will not stop firing for 100 years. Some of them, not for 50,000 years.